About

Our Vision

Over the past two decades Barbara and Bill Packard have grown or started several nonprofit organizations on a volunteer basis including St. Vincent de Paul, Flagstaff Project Homeless Connect, The Poore Medical Clinic, Full Circle Trade and Thrift, and Cash for Local Change. All have grown and prospered under their leadership.

Full Circle Trade & Thrift was envisioned and created as a “closed-loop” model of giving, sharing and receiving, where the community is invited and engaged to serve each other. Our giving/receiving model allows for the larger community to help sustain programs that promote the arts, education, recreation, and social services in Flagstaff.

By donating, shopping and or volunteering at Full Circle you became an integral part of the Full Circle concept. In December of 2016 we passed the torch to another nonprofit, Over the Rainbow Butterfly Garden, who operate it now as The Garden, continuing the same model. Those were 4 very fruitful years as we were able to give nearly ¾ of a million dollars to local non-profits. One of the things we learned at Full Circle is that the best way to effect meaningful change is to work as locally as possible. That knowledge has guided us as we’ve moved forward.

History

Right after we opened Full Circle we were offered collections of small items to sell in the store, if it was a large or unique collection our audience was limited to our foot traffic and Flagstaff. It was hard to get the real value out of the collection. Like most estate liquidators we were limited to who came to our sale. We decided to try some new ideas, the internet, and dealers. This expanded our shoppers to a multi- national arena. In 2016 nearly half our total sales came from this method.

Full Circle Charities Collectibles offers people wanting to liquidate collections a means to sell on a consignment or donation basis to a worldwide audience. Increasing their share and also providing a tax deductible donation that will fund local charitable projects. Just imagine how much more your collection will realize from this audience than from a Saturday garage/estate sale in your front yard.

Cash for Local Change was a program brought to us in 2015 by another local nonprofit who just couldn’t seem to get it off the ground. By 2016 we’d grown it to 21 business and were able to fund 14 local nonprofits with a total of $33,000. In 2017 we are on track to double those numbers.

Cash for Local Change is funded by Local Businesses who donate 1% of their cash sales to fund to support Flagstaff nonprofits. It’s a win/win because we encourage Flagstaff citizens to support these businesses and pay with cash when possible thus offsetting the donation with additional business and saved credit card fees.